The Law of Karma

Learn to live according to spiritual the rules of eternal life and improve the quality of your life. Your mind, emotions, speech and actions are affected by this law.

Mankind sometimes gets struck by their "destiny". Some suffer from illness, accidents, from being beaten half death or death and they most if not all the time claim others of being guilty.

This of course is completely wrong. Mankind - made to the image of God - needs to learn to be fully responsible for all they do. The law of Karma explains why illness, accidents and disasters of any kind may occurs to some persons, and why others may enjoy a happy life, free, healthy and joyful.

Learn to properly apply this law for your personal benefit - it will be at the same time for the benefit of all. By properly applying all spiritual principles of God's Divine creation, your life will become instantly easier - provided you follow ALL rules exactly to the word.

How the law of karma works

Actually the law of karma is very simple and has been known for thousands of years. The law of Karma is known in Christian teachings, as well as in many other cultures. It says:

Whatever you do to others - will be done to you, in this or any future incarnation of your soul.

This law is so straightforward and logical, it sometimes is hard to believe, that some persons still think they may somehow get around it. If you knock your head against a wall, it is obvious - it may damage the wall and it may hurt your head. If you knock someone by physically fighting - you may cause harm, pain, injury to the person and the law of Karma requires you to experience the same pain. This is to have you learn to behave in a way that causes but pleasant experiences to others and yourself alike.

Whatever you do, you may attract persons around you, that have a same or similar Karma than you have. If you are of a physically fighting nature, you may attract such persons again and again. Until you start to become aware of your own behavior and start to be fed up with the result of your very own actions. Until you start to strive for a more peaceful environment. The only sure method of finding one is changing your very own behavior.

This law of karma applies for individuals as much as for families, groups, villages, cities, nations, cultures or even entire planets.

Where does this law apply ?

It applies for all you do toward any being including animals, plants, planets, beings of any nature beyond physical sphere, humans, including what some may consider "criminals" - remember: All are children of God - made out of his Holy Spirit, made to the image of God. This law is valid for

• all of your actions
• all of your words
• all of your thoughts
• all of your emotions

But my thought or emotions are my personal secrets and of no concern to others, you may say ...

Perfectly wrong. All is energy. All your thoughts and emotions, all your fantasy are energy and are permanently radiating like a radio station. They do permanently affect your environment and its behavior. Some may radiate thoughts and feelings of Love, thus raising the vibration of their environment and be of a healing nature to others. Others may cause a kind of mental or emotional pollution to others, like a car may be able to do, or the chemical and some other Industries may still do.

But at least most people are not directly affected or hurt by my thoughts and emotions, you may say ...

The power of mind or emotions is far above the physical power. It may consciously hurt your physical body when your dad or mom or anyone else is beating you for any reason. Some may think, that a few days after you have forgotten it, thus it may be of no harm and leave no traces. But be assured that even one single stroke you ever get, may leave traces in your emotional or causal body for decades or incarnations. It may take years of conscious healing efforts to heal a person who has ever got any physical punishment for any reason by anyone. There is never any justification for any kind of physical punishment for any reason.

But even worst is any kind of verbal, mental or emotional violence against any person or other being of any nature. The power of metaphysical energy in proportion to physical energy may best be compared to the difference between 1 meter compared to 1 m² (square meter). Two different dimensions.

The only medicine that could ever heal injuries done by violent words, thoughts and emotions is but Divine Love. The damage that often lasts for thousands of years may be so tremendous, that only God can heal all this wounds by his pure and omnipotent Divine Love.

Metaphysical energy has a power far beyond physical imaginations. Fortunately, God created some safety measures in his creation. Most very physical persons with a strong ego have a rather weak metaphysical radiation. Because violent vibrations are of higher density, thus the flow of such energy is limited. It may be compared to the difference of the flow of honey compared to the flow of water through the same pipeline-system. It is harder to continuously create a flow of thoughts and emotions of low vibrations than such made of Divine Love.

Violent thoughts and emotions may thus be primary of physical nature with a relatively weak metaphysical part of radiation. But nevertheless all is energy and even the most violent thoughts always are radiating across the environment. In the future people may become more and more metaphysical in their perception and all their thoughts and emotions as well. This will for one part cause an awareness of other peoples thoughts and emotions and at the same time may cause their own thoughts and emotions to become more powerful for communications with their environment.

Your thoughts and emotions - no matter how secret you may consider them - do affect all others around you. It affects all around you. It affects the behavior, the action and reaction toward you from your entire environment.

Your thoughts and emotions are part of your aura and may affect those dear to you, like your family and friends, even when you are thousands of kilometers apart of each others. Even family members having "died" a long time ago, may still be affected by such radiation of your aura.

So beware of all your thoughts and emotions as well as all your words and action, because they create a reaction in your environment toward you. Be prepared to receive the kind of energy you radiate from others. Be even prepared to receive physically what you radiated in your fantasy or mind. Because a thought of violence or punishment toward any other person may hurt them even more than any physical violence and may come back as a physical reaction toward you.

Emotional injury that occurred in previous incarnation may be even more difficult to heal while being in a physical body than physical injuries. Medical doctors and healers need first to learn how to perceive and truly heal emotional injuries and blockages in the causal body caused by such past psycho-traumatic experiences in your life. However it is possible to heal any injury by the Divine power of God's Love and Bliss. This can be achieved directly by the person affected - for example by following spiritual traditions such like Kriya Yoga, Bhakti Yoga or any other suitable spiritual tradition or by asking for Divine assistance through a healer or even best directly from God.

karma moves in two directions. If we act virtuously, the seed we plant will result in happiness. If we act non-virtuously, suffering results.

Sakyong Mipham

Give up your selfishness, and you shall find peace; like water mingling with water, you shall merge in absorption.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.

Sakyong Mipham

I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good.

Sandra Bullock

You must acknowledge and experience this part of the universe. Karma is intricate, too vast. You would, with your limited human senses, consider it too unfair. But you have tools to really, truly love. Loving the children is very important. But love everyone as you would love your children.

Kuan Yin

Still others commit all sorts of evil deeds, claiming karma doesn't exist. They erroneously maintain that since everything is empty, committing evil isn't wrong. Such persons fall into a hell of endless darkness with no hope of release. Those who are wise hold no such conception.

Bohidharma

People are entangled in the enjoyment of fine clothes, but gold and silver are only dust. They acquire beautiful horses and elephants, and ornate carriages of many kinds. They think of nothing else, and they forget all their relatives. They ignore their Creator; without the Name, they are impure.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

My Karma ran over your dogma.

Anonymous

When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it's because of karma, some past connection.

Richard Gere

Karma, ahhh. We sow what we reap... We reap what we sow! We reap what we sow. The law of cause and effect. And we are all under this law.

Nina Hagen

As long as karma exists, the world changes. There will always be karma to be taken care of.

Nina Hagen

I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well.

Yannick Noah

Karma is not just about the troubles, but also about surmounting them.

Rick Springfield

I would never disrespect any man, woman, chick or child out there. We're all the same. What goes around comes around, and karma kicks us all in the butt in the end of the day.

Angie Stone

I never kill insects. If I see ants or spiders in the room, I pick them up and take them outside. Karma is everything.

Holly Valance

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.

Helen Keller

When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.

Harold Kushner

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.

Frederick Buechner

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.

Peyton Conway March

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Albert Schweitzer

Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Unknown

Everybody comes from the same source. If you hate another human being, you're hating part of yourself.

Elvis Presley

Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they sow with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.

Thomas Jefferson

To live without risk is to risk not living.

Pope Pius XII

Contrary to popular misconception, karma has nothing to do with punishment and reward. It exists as part of our holographic universe's binary or dualistic operating system only to teach us responsibility for our creations-and all things we experience are our creations.

Sol Luckman

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

Elbert Hubbard

Who so diggeth a pit shall fall therein.

Proverbs

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

George Bernard Shaw

The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.

William Penn

By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocity's of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us.

Edwin Markham

No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is left long without proper reward.

Booker T. Washington

Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them -- that it was a vain endeavor?

Henry David Thoreau

Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.

William Penn

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

Unknown

They who live have all things; they who withhold have nothing.

Hindu proverb

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

Buddha

No man is more cheated than a selfish man.

Henry Ward Beecher

Karma does not bind one who has renounced work.

Bhagavad Gita

Work done with selfish motives is inferior by far to the selfless service or Karma-yoga. Therefore be a Karma-yogi, O Arjuna. Those who seek [to enjoy] the fruits of their work are verily unhappy [because one has no control over the results].

Bhagavad Gita

In Karma-yoga no effort is ever lost, and there is no harm. Even a little practice of this discipline protects one from great fear of birth and death.

Bhagavad Gita

A man who sees action in inaction and inaction in action has understanding among men and discipline in all action he performs.

Bhagavad Gita

The person whose mind is always free from attachment, who has subdued the mind and senses, and who is free from desires, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from Karma through renunciation.

Bhagavad Gita

As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, similarly, the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all Karma to ashes.

Bhagavad Gita

Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed.

Bhagavad Gita

There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.

Bhagavad Gita

One who has control over the mind is tranquil in heat and cold, in pleasure and pain, and in honor and dishonor; and is ever steadfast with the Supreme Self.

Bhagavad Gita

One gradually attains tranquillity of mind by keeping the mind fully absorbed in the Self by means of a well-trained intellect, and thinking of nothing else.

Bhagavad Gita

The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.

Bhagavad Gita

The person who is basically evil by nature will always be averse to virtuous deeds. He is always engaged in bad karma.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Delusions are states of mind which, when they arise within our mental continuum, leave us disturbed, confused and unhappy. Therefore, those states of mind which delude or afflict us are called 'delusions.'

Dalai Lama

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

Dalai Lama

When you lose, do not lose the lesson.

Dalai Lama

Happiness is not something ready made. It is comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

Follow the 3 RES. RESpect for others. RESpect for yourself. RESponsibility for all your actions.

Dalai Lama

If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.

Dalai Lama

Sometimes not getting what you want is an amazing stroke of luck.

Dalai Lama

Always learn the rules so you can break them properly.

Dalai Lama

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

Do not let a small dispute injure a great relationship.

Dalai Lama

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Dalai Lama

When you realize you have made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Dalai Lama

Spend some amount of time alone everyday.

Dalai Lama

Open yourself to change, but do not let go of your values.

Dalai Lama

With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.

Dalai Lama

Remember that silence can sometimes be the best answer.

Dalai Lama

Live a good and honorable life. Then, when you are older you can look back and enjoy it a second time.

Dalai Lama

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for a great life.

Dalai Lama

In disagreements with loved ones, only deal with the present. Do not bring up the past.

Dalai Lama

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

Dalai Lama

The best relationship is one which your love for each other exceeds your need for one another.

Dalai Lama

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to achieve it.

Dalai Lama

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Dalai Lama

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message; that is love, compassion, and forgiveness are the important things that should be part of our daily lives.

Dalai Lama

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Wayne Dyer

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

Wayne Dyer

You are always a valuable, worthwhile human being -- not because anybody says so, not because you're successful, not because you make a lot of money -- but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason.

Wayne Dyer

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.

Wayne Dyer

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Wayne Dyer

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.

Wayne Dyer

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.

Wayne Dyer

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

Wayne Dyer

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Wayne Dyer

The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.

Wayne Dyer

You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back.

Wayne Dyer

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius

People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.

Edith Wharton

Luck is a word devoid of sense. Nothing can exist without a cause.

Voltaire

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold in them.

Elbert Hubbard

Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself.

Felix Adler

Doubt breeds doubt.

Franz Grillparzer

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Any man will usually get from other men just what he is expecting of them. If he is looking for friendship he will likely receive it. If his attitude is that of indifference, it will beget indifference. And if a man is looking for a fight, he will in all likelihood be accommodated in that.

John Richelsen

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of becoming a prophet.

Isaac Bashevis

Realize that everything connects to everything else.

Leonardo DaVinci

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Philo

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.

Barbara De Angelis

The point is to create a system where individuals don't work simply for money or personal gain but to support the planet and its inhabitants in entering the next stage of evolutionary progression.

Michael Bernard Beckwith

Contrary to popular misconception, karma has nothing to do with punishment and reward. It exists as part of our holographic universe's binary or dualistic operating system only to teach us responsibility for our creations-and all things we experience are our creations.

Sol Luckman

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Karma

The Problem of Evil in India

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The fundamental thing to remember about the word "karma" is that it means "action" -- or "work," "deed," "function," etc. (The root is actually karman -- like Brahman -- but the "n" drops off when the word is inflected in the nominative and accusative cases and is not commonly used in English.) In some important terms, like karmayoga, the principal teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, "karma" only means "action."

The most important thing, in a practical and moral sense, about action is whether it is right or wrong, good or bad. The first question about this is to ask what determines whether something is right or wrong. In India, the general answer to this would be dharma, "duty" (the root does not end in n); but what one's dharma is depends on who one asks.

In Hinduism dharma is supposed to be established by the Vedas, but dharma is not the same for everyone. Hindu/Vedic dharma is very individualized, and it depends on at least three variables:  (1) your caste, (2) your age, and (3) your sex. The characteristics of the caste system are treated elsewhere. Dharma varies with age because of the four stages of life. In the fourth stage there is no dharma at all, because one is considered dead to the world. Dharma varies with sex because the principal duty of a woman is obedience to her father, husband, or son. A husband always has the role of a teacher (guru) to his wife.

This social version of dharma disappears where heterodox Indian religions, like Buddhism and Jainism, reject the Vedas and, at least in part, ignore the caste system. In Buddhism, the Dharma is simply the Teaching of the Buddha. The Dharma was even thought to have a definite lifespan and would fade and disappear after some time -- after as little as 500 years (the "True Dharma" age) it would never be as effective as at first. On the other hand, the Dharma later was also thought to be eternal, as the cosmic "Dharma Body" of the Buddha. Future Buddhas therefore simply renew the efficacy of the Dharma among humanity.

Given some standard to distinguish right from wrong actions, one thing we then want to know about is justice:  Will right actions always earn reward and wrong actions punishment? Clearly, in terms of real life, this is not always the case. Right actions are often unrewarded, and wrong actions are often unpunished. Human agency is unable to detect much right and wrong, much less to restow the appropriate reward or retribution. The wicked often prosper. One question about life, then, is justice, not just human justice, but cosmic or divine justice.

Another thing we might want to know about is just the often apparently random distribution of reward and punishment, or goods and evils, that we see. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. Often, or even usually, this seems to have little to do with their actions or character. This raises the question of cosmic justice to one of the Problem of Evil:  Why is there evil in the world? If there is a benevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent Creator God, why does he allow it to happen? If benevolent, he would want the good; if omniscient, he would know everything; and if omnipotent, he would be powerful enough to make things be any way he would want, which would be the best. But that is not what we experience.

In ancient religions, the Problem of Evil tended to be avoided because the gods of those religions were usually neither benevolent, omnipotent, nor omniscient. Evil existed for us because we are mortal, and that's just the way things are. In the later monothesitic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islâm, cosmic justice is relatively easy, since God can reward the good and punish the wicked to any extent necessary. With the Problem of Evil, however, they have more of a problem. The God of such religions does possess the three maximal attributes. Attempting to explain divine action is then a difficult exercise in theodicy, i.e. the "justice" (dikê) of "God" (Theos).

The basic terms of this dilemma can already been seen in Plato's Socratic dialogue, the Euthyphro. All the monotheistic religions try to preserve for God some freedom of action, so that he does some things just because he Wills it, but only Islâm really goes all the way with that:  "God does what he wishes" [Allâhu yaf'alu mâ yashâ'u], Qur'ân, Surah 3:40 (or 3:35). Judaism and Christianity want to preserve some element of good and rational purpose, but neither goes all the way to the Greek philosophical view that God only does that for which there is a sufficient good and rational purpose. However, either view implies that the standard of right and wrong does not depend on God's will, and this is viewed, quite consistently, by Islâm (and by some Jewish and Christian philosophers, like Baruch Spinoza and William of Ockham) as compromising God's omnipotence.

Judaism and Christianity have tended to atrribute the existence of evil to our own acts of free will, i.e. God gave us free will because it is good, but then we misuse it. However, this means that God creates people whom he knows, because of his omniscience, will do evil and whom he will have to put in Hell. Since he creates them anyway, this would seem to compromise his benevolence -- he could avoid all that nastiness and suffering by just not creating them. Since Classical Islâm did not believe in free will, this approach doesn't even get off the ground. The Qur'ân says that God could save everyone if he wanted to, so the wicked are something created by God also, whom we are no one to question.

Even if the explanation of free will were adequate for human evils, it still doesn't govern natural evils. People die in floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and all sorts of other events, which in law are even quaintly called "Acts of God." In the Whittier Earthquake of 1987, two men were killed when they panicked and jumped out of windows. The harm can be laid to their miscalculation, but there was a woman who was simply walking out of a parking structure at California State University, Los Angeles, when a decorative concrete slab, bolted to the side of the structure, broke off and fell, killing her. If that was an "Act of God," then God seems to be up to no good -- or at least his purposes are so obscure that there is no point in trying to figure them out.

In India, cosmic justice and the Problem of Evil are handled with a theory that stands entirely separate from divine beings, whatever they are like. It is hard to be sure about the origin of this theory, but it is first clearly stated in the works of the Mîmâm.sâ School, beginning with aphorisms by Jaimini (c.400 BC) and progressing to more discursive treatments by Shabara (c.400 AD) and then Kumârila Bhat.t.a and Prabhâkara (after 700 AD). The Mîmâm.sâ School, of course, was concerned with the interpretation of the first two parts of the Vedas, which meant a basic concern with ritual and dharma. It is natural then that the issue of the fruit of dharma and adharma should be treated.

The theory that was developed was that right and wrong actions result in a kind of deposit, charge, or potential in the agent. Good deeds make a good deposit, evil deeds and bad deposit. The state of this charge or potential was called the apûrva, the "unprecedented" or "extraordinary" state (literally, "without prior"). This is now an unfamiliar term because in time the term "karma" came to be used to mean, not just action, but also the apûrva. Right and wrong actions (i.e. karma) thus cause good and bad "karma" (i.e. apûrva). This is a little confusing, but it should be clear that actions are momentary and transient, while karma=apurva can be with the agent for a long time after the actions are even forgotten.

The apûrva becomes the mechanism of cosmic justice and the solution of the Problem of Evil. In time the potential of the apurva is discharged, and this causes good and bad things to happen to the agent, good for good, evil for evil. No good deed goes unrewarded, no wrong unpunished. The knowledge and actions of the gods, or of God, are not even necessary. Good and evil take care of themselves. Consequently, one sometimes sees "karma" itself defined as "cause and effect" or "causality," since good actions ultimately cause good effects, and so forth. The "karmic" or "causal" body can be thought simply to consist of the apûrva.

If cosmic justice is therefore assured, the existence of evil is also explained. If bad things happen to good people, it is nevertheless the fruit of some prior wrongful deed, perhaps even in a previous lifetime. If good things happen to bad people, it is nevertheless the fruit of some prior righteous deed, again, perhaps even in a previous lifetime. Lottery winners do not simply have extraordinary luck. No one can get away with a lifetime of crime, because even if they die unpunished, they will be reborn in circumstances of punishing misfortune.

Despite the basic simplicity of the theory, there is a great variety of beliefs about karma. Some kinds of karma are expected be to discharged only in future lifetimes. Many people hope that their bad karma can be discharged through ritual acts rather than through the suffering of karmic consequences -- that bad karma can even be ritually turned into good karma. Such beliefs about karma, however, are either irrelevant to the basic theory or they are adverse to it. If bad karma can be ritually negated, then karma fails as a theory of cosmic justice, since strict retribution can be avoided. Also, it is often believed that bad karma can compel one to a certain course of action, e.g. it may be the karma of a serial killer to be that way. This also is adverse to cosmic justice, since karma is supposed to accrue for voluntary action, to be just. But if bad actions are themselves caused by previously earned bad karma, this seems rather pointless or unjust, either simply magnifiying the penalty for some originally voluntary action, or punishing someone for actions over which they have no control. Care must be taken with the developments of karmic theory, therefore, that the original point of the theory, as a theory of cosmic justice or an explanation of the Problem of Evil, is not undermined.

The "Law of Karma" is a powerful explanatory theory, but its strength may also turn out to be its weakness. It may explain too much. If every natural evil is the result of bad karma, which they must be to answer the Problem of Evil, then there is really no such thing as an innocent victim in life. This introduces a certain fatalism and callousness, fatalism because everything is as it should be, good and bad, and cannot be otherwise, and callousness because even the most apparently innocent victim must really be guilty. One consequence of the fatalism in India may be the strength of the caste system. Over the centuries, many people at the bottom of the caste system, Untouchables and Shudras, seem to have converted to Buddhism, Islâm, and other religions. The striking thing is not that so many should have converted, but that so many remain within Hinduism. The willingness of so many seems inexplicable unless they accepted their lot as the fruit of their own karma. The oppressed can hope for salvation or for a better rebirth, but the whole idea of social improvement or material progress is meaningless. The "oppressed," including the young brides in India who are murdered for their doweries by their in-laws, or the widows who used to be burned with their dead husbands ("suttee"), are only oppressed by their own karma. At the same time, children with cancer or birth defects are not innocent victims of random suffering:  it is their karma, even if they clearly have done nothing in this life to earn it. Even parents who share in the suffering of their children are merely experiencing the fruit of their own karma. The woman who was killed at Cal State LA in 1987 may have lived a perfectly exemplary life, but she must have deserved her fate because of some actions in a previous life.

The mischief of these ideas can be examined in a book by Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb, which was made into a television movie in 1987. In the autobiographical story, MacLaine is down in Peru, hanging out with a guy who says he has met extraterrestrials. MacLaine does not meet any ET's, but there is a revealing moment for our concerns about karma. Peru, of course, is crossed by the Andes, whose highest peak in the country is Mt. Huascarán, at 22,205 feet. At one point MacLaine and her friend are driving on a perilous mountain road, with no shoulder, no guard-rails, and a sheer drop into a deep canyon on one side. The road, however, is heavily travelled, often by overcrowed and poorly maintained buses. These buses occasionally lose their brakes and go over the side of the road. MacLaine sees one of these at the bottom of the canyon, and her companion says he remembers the crash. There were no survivors. MacLaine expresses some horror and outrage at this, but the response is that everyone who died on that bus was meant to be there. At the end of the movie scene, MacLaine, playing herself, says that she still can't get over it that so many people died. The compainion answers, "That is the point. They didn't." All the "deaths" merely resulted in rebirth.

What lessons are we to derive from this? Bad roads and bad brakes are OK because, if anything bad happens, it is meant to be? Fatalism can have that kind of effect. There is no point in trying to improve life, because misfortunes are deserved and required? A lot of tort lawyers are going to be out of work if everyone just decided that it was just their karma that some bad thing happened. This is precisely the attitude that gave India one of the most rigid and conservative social systems in the world. But then, after all, maybe it would be better not to have all those tort lawyers....

The problems that the monotheistic religions have with cosmic justice and the Problem of Evil are thus not simply "solved" by the Law of Karma. All these theories have shortcomings or unsatisfying aspects, costs and benefits. That this is the case may be suggestive of something else, for instance the Kantian system of Antinomies and the limitations of our knowledge about transcendent objects.

Good karma and bad karma share the same drawback:  they both cause rebirth. If salvation is the avoidance of rebirth, as it is for Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, then neither good nor bad karma are productive of salvation. One must avoid karma, achieve no karma, in order to achieve salvation. Since karma is the consequence of action, however, it might hardly seem possible to avoid it. Logically, no karma would have to mean no action, and no action would mean doing absolutely nothing, not even eating. Who would seek salvation on those terms?

Well, as it happens, there is a major Indian religion where salvation is ultimately attained by self-starvation, and that is Jainism. Jainism was founded by a near conteporary of the Buddha, Nataputta Mahâvîra (c.599-527 BC), or just Mahâvîra, the "Great Hero." A Jain saint, like Mahâvîra, is a Jin, or "Conqueror," "Overcomer," i.e. who has conquered or overcome bondage, and the religion is named for this term (although it is also used by Buddhism). As in Buddhism, gods in Jainism are secondary and unimportant. In the early 1990's, there were about 3.7 million Jains in India, which was less than one half of one percent of the population. The relatively small numbers of the Jains, and their failure to spread outside of India, are probably due to the ascetic rigor of the religion. Nevertheless, that same rigor has always given Jainism an influence, in a country respectful of asceticism, out of proportion to its numbers.

Since Jainism takes "no karma" seriously as "no action," and aims to achieve salvation through starvation, one might wonder that there are any Jains left. However, starvation is only the ultimate practice. It is not something that one does at a whim; there is a discipline of lifetimes that must precede it. The discipline begins with some simple practices that are observed by the whole Jain community, lay and monastic.

• Vegetarianism: While Hindus and Buddhists are often thought of as vegetarians, not all of them are; but the Jains are pretty exclusively. Something like vegetarianism is part of ascetic practice because it is a stage in the withdrawl from action, and because meat was traditionally thought to contribute to passion. Jains go so far as to purchase animals at meat markets in order to save them from slaughter.
• Non-Violence: Again, while Hindus and Buddhists are usually seen as advocating non-violence, and this is true in general for monastic Buddhism, it is certainly not true for Hinduism, where violence, for the warrior caste, is a postive duty, as described in the Bhagavad Gita. No one familiar with the recent history of India would think of Hinduism as especially non-violent. Jainism, however, is particularly distinguished by its doctrine of non-violence, ahim.sâ, "non-hurting." Indeed, one reason Hinduism is thought of as non-violent is because of Mahâtamâ Gandhi, but Gandhi himself got many of his ideas about non-violence from Jains who had been family friends when he was a child. The Jains are so serious about non-violence that they consider farming as too violent a profession (this was true for early Buddhism also). This might be considered hypocritical, since the Jains must eat the food raised by non-Jain farmers, but it must be remembered that this is not supposed to be a perfect practice, only a stage in the withdrawal from action. Curiously, since Jains will not be farmers, theirs is an urban community and tends to be wealthier than most Hindus.

While vegetarianism and non-violence can be practiced by all Jains, more rigorous practices require a monastic way of life.

• Celibacy: Celibacy means no sex. This is more severe than chastity, which means no unsanctioned sex. Celibacy means giving up family and all carnal contact. In the West, this sort of thing now tends to be seen as unhealthy, unnatural, and unnecessary. Even in the Catholic Church, were a celibate priesthood remains, some regard the institution as archaic and vicious. There is little sense of that in India. It is ironic to have to point this out in California, when the State was originally occupied by Spain with the help of Franciscan monks, whose founder, St. Francis of Assisi (after whom the city of San Francisco is named), was a mendicant, or travelling, monk very much after the manner of Buddhist and Jain monks in India.
• Poverty: While poverty is characteristic of most monasticism, Jainism goes to extremes. The oldest and most venerable order of Jain monks, the Digambara, or "Sky Clad," don't even own clothes. They go naked. There are no Digambara nuns. Jain Saints are always shown naked. This is what impressed the Greeks when they reached India, since they prided themselves on going naked in athletics to display the beauty of the human body. Other Middle Eastern people they knew of didn't do this -- many even observed the nudity taboo that survives into modern Western society. Then Alexander gets to India, and not only are there men going naked, but they are holy men, the "Naked Philosophers," Gymnosophistai. The Jains even have a story that Alexander gave up trying to conquer the world after talking to the naked monks. This is a nice touch, but we know from Greek historians that Alexander turned back only because his army was ready to mutiny and wanted to go home. There are both monks and nuns in the Shvetambara, or "White Clad," sect of Jainism. The white robes of the Jains contrast with the saffron of the Buddhists, or the black robes that Christian Jesuits wore when they showed up in the 16th century. The Digambaras are strict mendicants and only own a jar, to carry pure water in, and a whisk, to clean places to sit lest an insect be crushed. The Shvetambara may even wear a mask over their nose and mouth to prevent insects from being inhaled. Again, it is striking to contrast this with current, and past, Western practice. Although the Franciscans who ran the missions in Upper California were from a tradition of mendicants, a person seen today begging by the roadside (or, more commonly, the freeway off-ramp) tends to be judged as either (1) a homeless victim of society, perhaps even mentally ill, about whom all comfortable persons should feel guilty, or (2) a shiftless bum and probable drug addict who would use any charitable money for narcotics or alcohol. What is never seen and never expected would be (3) a mendicant ascetic living under a vow of poverty. If St. Francis were to appear at the off-ramp, his sign would say, "Will preach for food." A naked Digambara would, of course, be immediately arrested.
  
• Fasting: Besides his non-violence, Gandhi's tactic of the "fast onto death" also seems borrowed from the Jains. A Digambara is not supposed to fast onto death until after 12 years of practice, but at the moment none may be doing so, since this is considered a corrupt period of history in which the greatest spritual practices are not to be found. Meanwhile, a monk may eat once a day, if anyone is willing to feed him. He does not knock on doors, but just walks down the street with a hand on his own shoulder. If anyone sees that, and wishes to feed him, the family circumambulates (walks around him), vowing that their intentions are pure, their food is pure, and that they speak the truth. Purity and truth are prime Jain virtues -- Jain households are very well scrubbed, doubtless from a period when they did not realize that all the mildew they were erasing consisted of living beings. Now Jains even worry about killing bacteria -- though they continue with their clean habits. The monk to be fed enters the household but does not sit down ("Would you like a napkin for your...er...lap, there?"). He stands, with food being put directly into his hand.

Jainism is occasionally to be seen suffering from Western political correctness. An otherwise good show on PBS about the Jains some years ago, idealizing the non-violence and "animal rights" aspects of the religion, didn't bother mentioning the more rigorous ascetic practices, like starvation, and also managed to find a Jain doctor who endorsed, of all things, abortion. Since Jains worry about killing insects and micro-organisms, it would be astounding hypocrisy if more than the very rare individual countenanced the killing of human embryos and fetuses. It was the documentary makers, not most Jains, whose thought was so incoherent. There are limits, indeed, to which Jain asceticism is going to fit into Western societies. I am eager for the day when a Digambara monk visits the United States and refuses to wear clothes for any purpose, even an appearance in court on an "indecent exposure" charge. The "free exercise of religion" clause of the First Amendment will face a severe test. Some Hindu sadhus also go naked in India, and the unremarkable nature of all this was evident in a wire service photo years ago of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, visiting a Digambara monk. At the time, it was hard to imagine Ronald or Nancy Reagan standing next to a naked old man like this was important spiritiual business.

While Jainism takes "no action" literally and accepts the consequences, Hinduism and Buddhism take it less literally. The Bhagavad Gita, for Hinduism, describes the detachment of mind that is needed for the yoga (the means of salvation) of doing one's dharma without producing karma thereby. Yoga is a cognate of the English word yoke, not like the yoke of an egg but like a yoke of oxen. The verb yuj means to "harness" or "yoke"; and yoga can mean a "team," like yoked oxen, or "equipment," "means," "device," or "union." A yoga, indeed, is a device for salvation, and salvation can be seen as a union of Brahman and the Âtman. Because of the teaching of the Gita, it is often thought that there are three yogas, but the three yogas themselves can consist of other yogas, and one of the Six Schools of Hinduism is itself the Yoga School.

Dharma remains at least a necessary condition for religious practice that leads to salvation. In Buddhism, traditional belief was that obedience to the Dharma resulted in the accumulation of merit which eventually enabled one to perform the highest levels of Buddhist practice. However, not all Buddhists saw the logic of this, and many forms of Buddhism, like Zen, did not believe that the accumulation of merit was necessary, or even that all the moral requirement of the Dharma need be observed. These complications, however, need not be consided further here.

Good Karma, Bad Karma?

Posted 10/8/06 (By Travis)

10/8/06 Neoperspectives.com

    Karma is a term that has been bandied about fairly loosely in common culture. Synonymous with the old expression, 'What goes around comes around', the interpreted meanings of Karma span the spectrum, from cute but meaningless expression to a foundational law of spiritual reality.

    IMHO, in my humble opinion, there are two perspectives, possible phenomena, which legitimize the functional meaning of the phrase without laying judgment on the more epistemological claims. 

    The first starts with the premise that good acts and thoughts, resulting from each other or increased awareness/introspection (and vice versa), bring their own internal rewards. Helping others, achieving goals, controlling the mind, and advancing and improving oneself brings both short and, most especially, long term happiness. Cognitive dissonance between the higher mind and lower animalistic nature is minimized and positive emotions are generated, better said, they are uncovered and freed to elevation. Now, this may be stating the obvious, but when we combine it with our knowledge of how human beings interact, this facet of Karma becomes clearer. 

    It was somewhat surprising to hear a prominent physician remark, "Whether you like it or not, or are aware of it or not, you will treat your patients differently. You will be more careful, slower, thoughtful, and caring with the ones you like as compared to the ones you don't like. If I really don't like a patient, I won't treat them in order to keep the standard of my care high." (For context, he mostly does nonemergency elective procedures). Whether doctors should take their personal opinions to this level is anyone's judgment call, but the underlying pattern undoubtedly exists and is present in all professions and relationships, if we are honest and humble enough to admit and discover it. 

    This being the case, it is apparent how good acts and deeds to others around you will be returned, either through direct knowledge and reciprocation of your actions, or indirectly, simply because your resultant happiness makes you likeable. 

    The second, subtler, Karmic phenomena is less esoteric and more of a product of networking and environmental theory. As we interact with our various social groups we add something to the nature of each. Without going out on a Consciousness limb, the information exchanges and natures of groups of connected persons are reflective of said membership. At any given time one is adding, for lack of a better term, 'positive energy' (positiviness, ie making the group better, increasing the group happiness) or 'negative energy' to each network. Of course, it is often difficult to define exactly what positive and negative 'energy' is, but it can be no more challenging than the analogous interpretations of the 'good and moral acts' of the aforementioned first perspective.

    The sum of all our contributions to our various networks and they to each other up to and including the ultimate aggregate network, effect the makeup of these networks, which in turn combine to have a profound impact on every aspect of our lives, fulfilling the karmic prerequisite. But which is more important, the chicken or the egg? Unfortunately, I'd think, we have a tendency to overestimate our ability to contribute positive energy and downplay the degradations of negative energy on our psych. Thus, at least initially, it is important to choose our environments, friends, relationships, and activities carefully, recognizing our extreme fragility, attempting to maximize the 'positive energy' (increased moral improvements/happiness) we receive. After all, how can we contribute positive energy to our networks with a log in our own eye? 

    This reminds me a bit of author Ayn Rand's brush with treating relationships as capitalistic goods and services, a rather fascinating framework, IMO. What do you give and receive from each relationship? Since we all have different wants and needs and posses different traits of varying value to others, do we not, in effect, participate in a massive  'nonmaterial' market, unregulated I might add :), with other 'cognitive traders' around us? Luckily, we can once again discard the staid viewpoint of our friends on the left, who would surely believe there is only a 'fixed amount' of 'cognitive resources' that must be divvied up equally, and perhaps even taxed... I'm only kidding, but in truth each of us can create our own 'cognitive/emotional/moral wealth', improve ourselves and increase our happiness and awareness without taking anything away from anyone else. In fact, just as financial wealth creation spreads prosperity and benefits everyone, so too does a rising tide raise all boats, the contagiousness of personal advancement, morality, and happiness, is equally as beautiful in its simplicity. 

                                                                      KARMA

The question, "is your karma good or bad?" raises a number of assumptions and other questions about karma, fate, destiny, and action.

• Can karma be changed?
• Must you accept the karma you bring to this life?
• If you have "bad karma," are you doomed to a life of pain and trouble?
• If you have "good karma," can you rest easy and coast through life?
• What does luck have to do with it?
• What does guilt have to do with it?

Can Karma - Good or Bad - Be Changed?

Karma good or bad, is, basically, the result of your previous actions that left you with more lessons to be learned. You can complete these lessons in the same lifetime or drag them forward to your next. Some of the obstacles and/or rewards in your present life are here to finish spiritual tasks from your past lives. You can change your karma by completing these lessons.

Must you accept bad karma in this life?

The most important objective in your spiritual growth is to recognize the lessons your soul needs to learn in your present incarnation. This means that yes, you are "accepting" that there's some unfinished business - karma good, or bad - you need to take care of. You are acknowledging that there's "bad" karma, but you don't need to accept that it's unchangeable.

Are you doomed by your bad karma?

The opportunities that arise to help you complete these lessons may be experienced as sadness, grief, hurt, pain, bad luck, or obstacles. Once you identify them as past life baggage, you can make new choices, take different actions, and clear the negativity away.

Does good karma mean an easy life?

Your soul is always incarnated with one or more purposes for your present life. During some lifetimes, your lessons may be to overcome the ease and luck (karma=good) that appear without effort. That may sound strange, but remember that you're always creating karma, good or bad, for your future lives by the actions you take this time around. If you have a lot of money, do you donate to good causes? Do you help others who are less fortunate than you? Do you practice random acts of kindness? What kind of person is the good karma in this lifetime making you?

Is luck the same as karma, good or bad?

Many people believe that the two terms are interchangeable. There are many circumstances in which it seems so: good luck appears magically, out of nowhere, but is really the result of positive actions you've taken in this or past lives. Bad luck is the result of actions and energies you've previously set in motion, as well. At times, however, luck is not a result but an opportunity - maybe even a test. Given good luck or bad luck, what do you do with it? Do you share your good fortune? Do you share your despair? Do you turn any luck into positive actions and help those around you, no matter what? Whether you have good or bad luck, the way you respond creates your future karma.

Does guilt about past actions help?

Guilt sidetracks you from taking actions and does little in the way of healing any bad karma you may have brought into this incarnation. Guilt tends to freeze you in place, pulls your energy inside you, and keeps you wallowing in negative emotions. It's very difficult to take positive actions when you're weighted down with guilt. To move your soul forward, let go of guilt about any actions from your previous lives and face the opportunities and obstacles presented to you now. Respond with positive energy and actions so that your future lives will have less bad karma to resolve.

Past Life Regressions
and Karma, Good or Bad

Past life regression sessions provide insight into the karmic lessons you've carried to your present life, as well as wisdom about how to resolve the issues. Is your karma good or bad? Regressions can help you find the origin of the opportunities and obstacles you face in your present life, re-experience how you've responded in your past lives, and gain a new understanding of your karma, good or bad, and how to approach it in the here and now. Past Lives Coaching works with you to clear bad karma, make the most of good karma, improve your present life, and create more positive future lives for you.

Is Your Karma Good or Bad? Is your karma good or bad? How do you feel about the opportunities and obstacles that you've met in this lifetime? Do you feel like they're your destiny? Have you undergone past life regressions to better understand or resolve these issues? Have you changed your karma? Please share your story with other visitors to Past Lives Coaching. We all learn from each other and gain from each other's experiences.

 BAD KARMA

1.I find it easier to just love everyone...Good or bad, for me or against me, known or unknown. That way it's their bad karma, not mine.

2.It seems there's a limit for everything in life except for bad luck. Karma enjoys playing with it until you wish your next day is the last.

3.I truly believe 2012 will be the year that good things will happen to good people and bad karma will catch up with the people who deserve it.

4.I'm not going to stress over you anymore. It isnt worth it. I tried to work something out but you just ignored it. Im not trying to say I dont want you, because I definitely do. All Im saying is Im done chasing after you.

5.Im not going to be that rebound girl, the girl you just come to when you want her, the girl who loves you with everything she has but yet you give nothing. Im not willing to be that girl anymore. Sorry, sweetie, but Im gone.

Heres a piece of advice let go when youre hurting too much, give up when love isnt enough, and move on when things arent like before. Surely there is someone out there who will love you more.

every girl has that one guy she goes back to,heartbreak after heartbreak and nobody knows why not even her .and she just cant let go.

 

Gratitude, Appreciation
and Understanding

  An important part of Spiritual Healing is learning to understand and use Gratitude and Appreciation for yourself and others. Now here I’m not talking about the preachy form of “Say thank you”. I’m also not a big fan of “blessing the problems that come into my life,” but probably only because I haven’t been able to master that one myself yet.

The Gift of Understanding

In my own life, and in working with others, I use the words Gratitude and Appreciation synonymously with Understanding. Let’s think about it for a second. It’s only when you understand something can you have an Appreciation for it.

And when you begin to understand that some unwanted thing in your life had a positive intention to begin with, it’s easy to have Gratitude for that Intention.

In Spiritual Healing we need to remove Self-Judgment and Blame. I use Understanding as a way to replace these feelings with Gratitude and Appreciation. It isn’t always easy, but it is a simple process.

Problems, Reasons and Answers

Whenever we have a problem there’s a human need to attach a reason for that problem. Unfortunately, the reason that we assign is never completely accurate. Or, the reason is only accurate from one perspective.

One way that we can start addressing problems is by first trying to understand the problem from various perspectives. By doing this we have the option of choosing a useful reason for the problem.

Let’s take the example of a man in his 40’s that came to me for help with his low self-esteem and lack of confidence whenever he tried something new. He knew that the reason for his problem was that his parents never encouraged him as a child or as even a teen. Now here is a man in his 40’s still living in a self-imposed trap that he believes his parents set up for him.

By understanding the impact that he had been an only child due to several miscarriages by his mother, he was able to release many of the over-protectiveness that she had passed on to him growing up.

His parents had been so worried for the safety of their only son that they actually discouraged him from playing sports or anything that would require even a hint of danger.

Before being able to let go of the feelings that held him back, he needed to realize that these feelings were passed on to him by very caring parents. He first began to understand, and then to Appreciate and have Gratitude for the intentions of his parents to keep him safe.

It then became easy for him to let go of the over-protectiveness that his parents had passed on to him, and that he was still trying to recreate on a subconscious level. As he let go, he naturally began to expand himself and it became easy to try new things with confidence as he had always hoped for.

An Attitude of Gratitude

I love this quote, “have an attitude of gratitude.” But the Gratitude that will be most impact in our lives will be Self-Gratitude and Self-Appreciation.

By learning to have an understanding of our Self it becomes easy to start living with gratitude. And the more of our Self that we get to know, the more that we learn to appreciate.

As we learn to apply Spiritual Healing in our lives, let’s remember that all healing starts from the inside. Applying these lessons in your life on a moment-by-moment basis will go far in living the life you truly desire.